Caveat
by thisissirius
Summary: <html><head></head>Edmund chooses not to betray his siblings and pays a heavy price. Years later, Aslan is once more in the country of his children and he offers Peter a chance to change the fate of his brother - but does Peter still trust his word?</html>


**authors note: ** i don't know how many people still play in this sandbox but the release of ithe dawn treader/i and re-reading the books has led to me re-finding my Narnia love and I bring this fic.

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><p><em>Let it serve as a reminder,<em> Jadis had said.

Peter only knew that because Tumnus had told him so afterwards. They had been standing in the midst of her Palace, ice walls melting from the coming of Spring and statues of stone all around them. Centaurs, Giants, Fauns and many a Talking Beast. They had surveyed the damage done and Tumnus had taken his arm, told him of another, deep in the recesses of the Palace. He was standing guard before the doors to the Witch's Throne Room and though Peter knew, deep in his bones, before they even reached the figure of stone, it didn't lesser the shock of seeing him. Peter had touched the stone, terrified and reverent as he caressed the cold face. A face he recognised.

His brother, subjected to a torment of stone, suffering for eons and millennia as he stayed the same age, the same shape, the same ieverything/i until the end of time.

Aslan had said he would remember; that beneath the prison of stone, Edmund was aware and alive and feeling. Thoughts of Aslan sobered Peter abruptly and he snapped out of his reverie, standing before the statue of his brother. Still decked in the shorts and jumper of the days before war and death and danger, Edmund was a reminder to them all of the power Jadis had once held over the land. His face was defiant; chin tilted and the way that used to infuriate Peter. Eyes he could imagine blazing with anger and defiance, hands clenched into fists. The very statue was a front to everything Jadis had been hoping to accomplish with Edmund. His brother was still a fighter to the last but Peter no longer wondered what Edmund had done to achieve such a punishment. Tumnus had spilled it all, words falling over sentences has he hastened to describe Edmund's courage and anger as Jadis had demanded to know where Peter and his sisters were, trying to force Edmund to give them up. Peter had been sure for one moment that he had, that Edmund had told her everything she'd wanted to know and his turning to stone was his punishment for the betrayal. Tumnus had a different story, one that left Peter, Susan and Lucy reeling. Edmund had refused to divulge the information, had been turned to Stone for his efforts and all the while, they had been cursing his treachery and betrayal.

Now Peter knelt before his brother, one hand wrapped around the pommel of his sword, the other clenched into a fist by his side. He rested his head against the cool metal of the lions head and focused his thoughts on one single thought, one hope and wish and iwant/i: To see Edmund alive and well and grinning that infuriating grin.

When Peter looked up, Edmund was as still as only stone could be.

"Forgive me," Peter muttered, the same words he repeated every time he came in here. He pushed himself to his feet and sheathed his sword, still clutching the end in his hand. He ran a finger over the head of the lion and wondered, not for the first time, what it meant to lose ones faith. The lion was supposed to be a symbol of hope and promise. Instead, it only served to remind Peter of everything he had lost; and how little had been done to put it right.

"Peter?"

Peter turned at the voice to find Susan standing at the entrance to the How. She rarely stepped within its walls unless she had to. She never told him why and he knew better than to ask; they all had their own demons to battle where their little brother was concerned. Susan was decked in armour just like him, muted colours and only enough that it didn't hamper her skills with a bow and arrow. Her hair, cropped short and tight to her shoulders, was now pulled tight into a bun at the back of her head, stuck through with sticks in a manner Peter was sure was Narnian learned. Motioning back over her shoulder, Susan deliberately avoided eye contact with Edmund's statue. "They're waiting on you out here."

Nodding tightly, Peter gave his brother one last look and a rueful smile. "To war."

Tossing Edmund a mock salute, Peter turned his back on the stone statue and followed Susan out into the open, into uncertainty and fear and danger.

Peter would find a way to bring Edmund back to them, even if he had to spill the blood of a million fell beasts to do it.

**TBC**


End file.
